Show this photo to your children and tell them that these are REAL baby carrots!

Blue cheese dressing has a devout following, including myself, or rather, my former self, before I became calorie-conscious. My favorite birthday dinner growing up was steak, baked potato with sour cream and salad with blue cheese dressing. And yes, this is why I had a weight problem at an early age and why I haven’t indulged in this dinner for the last, oh, 40 odd years or so.

Martha Stewart’s new Light Cookbook yields a less waist-expanding version of my once-favorite dressing that is very satisfying, provided you make it and use it up within several days (it gets substantially thinner as it sits). The base for its relative lightness is buttermilk, which is used in the full-fat version but in equal amounts with real mayonnaise and sour cream.

I’m posting this well before Super Bowl Sunday for those of you seeking lighter versions of popular TV snacks. Serve with celery and baby carrots along with buffalo chicken drumsticks, which you can find here.

Caveat: Don’t expect miracles. This dressing is not as thick as the original, but it ranks way above the light bottled version, which I find gummy and artificial-tasting and not worthy of human consumption.

Light Blue Cheese Dressing

1 cup low fat buttermilk
1/4 cup light mayonnaise
1 T. red wine vinegar
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese (2 ounces)

Whisk together the buttermilk and light mayonnaise until smooth. Add vinegar. Fold in blue cheese crumbles and season with salt and pepper. Use within two days.

Serves 6 to 8 (2-3 T. each)

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“If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.”
Harry S. Truman

This is why Harry Truman, a proud, self-proclaimed denizen of the American Midwest, became President of the United States. He was a plain-spoken man who said it like it was. (Oh, for politicians like him right now in Washington D.C.!!!)

Our unprecedented heat wave is unrelenting, so I’ve taken Harry’s advice and steered clear of the kitchen. My only cooking source has been the grill, and I’ve used that sparingly. Who wants to stand outside in 100 degree weather and tend to food on an open flame? Anyone? Anyone?

Not surprisingly, salads have become our main entree, accompanied by all things fresh, cold and uncomplicated.

After several nights of same old, same old, I had to reach up my sleeve for some new salad tricks to keep us from running straight to the nearest burger bistro. I know what you’re thinking: Greek salad isn’t exactly unique, but when I saw this recipe on www.eatingwell.com, there was something refreshing about the thought of cold tomatoes and cucumber mixed with chicken that drew me in.

I knew that I didn’t even have to grill the chicken if I didn’t want to–I could resort to store-bought. (However, when it comes to store-roasted poultry, I’ve drawn the line. It’s almost always overcooked, so in this case I took the heat of the grill.)

This salad gets an A+ for being thoroughly delightful. And here’s a bonus: it serves only two!  It was one of those dishes where, despite its simplicity, we kept saying, “Yum. This is so good!”

See how good it was? All gone!

Chopped Greek Salad with Chicken for Two

2 1/2 T. red-wine vinegar
1 T. extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/2 t. chopped fresh dill, or oregano, or 1/2 t. dried
1/2 t. garlic powder (I used fresh garlic)
1/4 t. salt
Freshly ground black pepper

3 cups chopped romaine lettuce
1 1/4 cups chopped cooked chicken
1 big tomato, chopped
1/2 cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped (I used seedless, which doesn’t need peeling)
1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
1/4 cup sliced black olives (I used Kalamata)
1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese

Whisk vinegar, oil and herbs together in a large bowl. Add lettuce, chicken, tomato, cucumber, onion, olives and feta. Toss to coat.

Serves two.

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Chicken Caesar Salad has had a relatively speedy evolution: it first appeared on the menus of upscale restaurants and then quickly got demoted all the way down to the bottom of the fast food chain. You can now order one at the drive-thru, and what you get is this: limp romaine lettuce and salty processed chicken pieces bound together by fake-Caesar dressing and served in plastic. Do me a favor and don’t invite me to dinner that night.

In its most classic rendition, Chicken Caesar Salad can be downright delicious. Real Caesar dressing is a creamy combination of eggs, oil, garlic, anchovies, lemon juice, Worcestershire Sauce and Parmesan cheese. The eggs and oil are what make it so creamy, and therein lies the challenge of lightening it up. How do you do creamy without fat?

Once again, the folks at Cooks Illustrated have come up with a solution. Their lower-fat Caesar dressing gets its creaminess from a combination of buttermilk and light mayonnaise. The buttermilk gives it a tang that completely tricks you into believing you’re eating something rich and fattening.

And yes, there are anchovies in the dressing. If you’ve ever had this salad in a restaurant you ate anchovies, so as my girlfriend Kaye’s mother Dottie says, “put on your big girl panties and get over it”.

I feel it necessary to issue a caveat here: while this is healthier than the original recipe, it is not a no-fat dressing. That is why it is so good. Better a moderate portion of this than a vat of the homogenized no-fat stuff. Life is only so long. Amen.

Dressing

1/4 cup buttermilk
2 T. lemon juice
2 T. light mayonnaise
2 t. Dijon mustard
1 t. Worcestershire Sauce
2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
3 anchovy fillets, rinsed (I bought anchovies in a tin and froze the extras in single portions wrapped in foil)
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. pepper
2 T. olive oil
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Puree all ingredients except the Parmesan in a blender or food processor (I used a small processor) until smooth. Stir in the Parmesan. This makes about one cup of dressing. You’ll need 1/2 cup dressing to serve four, so refrigerate the rest. It makes a great dip for crudites.

Salad for Four

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (6 oz. each), cooked and cut into 1/2″ pieces (I grilled my chicken)
2 large romaine lettuce hearts, washed and torn into 1/2″ pieces
Croutons (see recipe below)

Toss the romaine in a large bowl with all but 1 T. of the 1/2 cup dressing and divide evenly between four plates. Add the chicken to the empty bowl and toss with the remaining 1 T. dressing. Evenly place the chicken atop the lettuce. Sprinkle with the croutons.

Croutons

4 cups French bread cubes, cut into 1/2″ pieces (include crusts)
Olive oil spray
1/4 t. salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place bread cubes on a large baking sheet, generously spray with the olive oil spray and sprinkle with salt. Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes, shaking the pan halfway through to promote even browning. Allow to cool before serving. These keep well in an airtight plastic bag.

Serves: 4

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The term dates back to the ancient Romans, who believed that Sirius, the Dog Star, was the cause for hot weather. Sirius is in the constellation Canus Major (Large Dog) and is the brightest star in the sky next to the sun. Thus its brilliance and its fortuitous position in a canine constellation gave it special meaning to ancient peoples. When the star shone brightly at sunrise, they knew they were in for a heat wave.

Throughout history, “dog days” became synonymous with summer heat and all of the aberrant behavior that seemed to accompany it. In the children’s novel, “Tuck Everlasting”, the author wrote, “”These are strange and breathless days, the dog days, when people are led to do things they are sure to be sorry for after.” (See picture above!)

If you’re trying to watch your weight during this sultry time of year, you’re apt to relate to that statement in spades.

Full-fledged cooking is out, with the exception of heating up the outdoor grill. Here’s a cool salad, adapted from Cooking Light, that is very refreshing. It’s got a lovely curry flavor and lots of fresh fruit in it. If you don’t want to cook the chicken breasts, pick up a rotisserie chicken on your way home and toss this together in just a few minutes.

Cool, fruity, exotic! Accompany with whole wheat crackers or a baguette.

The original recipe called for low-fat mayonnaise as the only binder, but I used half greek yogurt because it’s a great no-fat substitute. If you want to further reduce the WW points in this salad, you can use all yogurt, but I think mayonnaise gives it a creaminess that’s worth the extra calories. After all, life is only so long.

1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breast, cooked and cut into 1″ chunks
1 cup seedless red grapes, halved
1 cup peeled, diced apple
2 T. currants or raisins (yellow are good)
1/4 cup Hellman’s Light mayonnaise
1/4 cup fat-free plain Greek yogurt
1 t. honey
1 t. curry powder
1 t. fresh lemon juice
1/4 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
2 T. sliced almonds, toasted

Combine fruit and chicken in a large bowl. Stir together mayonnaise, yogurt, honey, curry powder, lemon juice, salt and pepper in a small bowl and pour over chicken mixture. Gently fold together and sprinkle with almonds.
Cover and chill.

Serves 4 (a generous cup per serving)

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Top this salad with grilled salmon, shrimp, chicken or steak

I recently had a summer salad for lunch at a restaurant, and it was so delicious I made notes of the ingredients on my iPhone. Here are the basics: salad greens, grilled corn, grape tomatoes, avocado, yellow raisins, almonds and feta cheese. You can then add any main course protein if you wish. I had grilled shrimp at the restaurant, but they also serve it with chicken.

The ingredients work together to make this really special, even though none of them is particularly stellar on its own. Champ said it was the grilled corn that stood out; I simply grilled it over direct heat, let it cool and then sliced the kernels off the cob.

Tonight we had the best salmon of the year–fresh wild sockeye salmon, expensive but worth it for the brief moment it’s available. Most of the year I avoid salmon because of its fishy taste, but wild salmon in season is a different matter.

I wanted the vinaigrette to be simple and light, yet I didn’t want to buy another light bottled salad dressing as I find most of them to have a gummy consistency. (A shelf in the door of my refrigerator is lined with a variety of light dressings that I tried really hard to like. One of these days I’m going to purge and reclaim that shelf for real ingredients!)

Cooks Illustrated’s “Best Light Recipe” cookbook suggests adding water to vinaigrette in place of some of the olive oil, and to my surprise it not only worked, it was delightful. So much better than store-bought.

Basic salad ingredients:

Salad greens of your choice–I like baby greens
Grape tomatoes, halved (when summer delivers real tomatoes, use them)
Grilled corn, cut off the cob
Avocado, chopped into bite-sized pieces
Yellow raisins
Marcona almonds (Costco’s Kirkland brand in a tin can)
Grilled fresh salmon, shrimp, chicken or steak
Feta cheese (optional; I didn’t have any but I’ll add it next time)

Light Balsamic Vinaigrette

6 T. water
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 T. balsamic vinegar
2 t. Dijon mustard
1 garlic clove, minced
1 t. fresh oregano, minced
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper

Shake all ingredients in a jar. This dressing can be refrigerated for up to a week.

1 T. serving: 35 calories

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The salad contained fresh cherries–in season now–with pistachios and warm goat cheese toasts. Lovely. I made a version of it last night to go with our weekly roast chicken (I’ll have to post a recipe for that as soon as I can get a picture of it before Champ carves it up!).

Fruit is not a novel salad ingredient: strawberries have long been a staple in spinach salads. The key is to use whatever is in season–in the summer, cherries, blackberries, blueberries. In the winter, apples, oranges, pears.

Add your favorite extras–a few toasted nuts, hearts of palm, dried fruit. Or grill some large shrimp and make this a main-course salad.

Perfect summer accompaniment to roast free-range chicken

Fresh cherries, halved
Baby salad greens
Goat cheese
Lemon vinaigrette

Combine cherries and greens in a salad bowl and toss with vinaigrette. Crumble goat cheese onto individual servings.

Lemon vinaigrette

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
2. T. fresh lemon juice
1/2 t. Dijon mustard
1 garlic clove, crushed (but not broken-hearted)
1/4 to 1/2 t. kosher or sea salt

Whisk together ingredients and lightly dress salad.

Classic vinaigrettes are usually made with a ratio of one part vinegar or lemon juice to three parts oil. If you want to lighten yours, add more lemon juice; it will be tangier, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. If your salad includes grilled shrimp, serve with lemon wedges.

Last night I grilled a whole chicken and brought it to the table on a platter with this as the only side. I added pickled jalapenos to kick it up, and squeezed fresh lime juice on as well. Refreshing, easy, healthy, not to mention totally delicious. We dined al fresco on the back patio with two hungry poodles keeping constant watch over the chicken.

BTW, I put up a similar recipe last year in the salad section, but this one deserves inclusion because of its stripped-down, ready-at-a-moment’s-notice nature.

Don’t laugh when you read the ingredients. There are a mere four. Think you can handle that?

1 15-oz. can black beans, rinsed well and drained
1 1/2 cups frozen corn, thawed and drained*
1 10-oz. can Rotel tomatoes (diced tomatoes and green chilies)
3 T. chopped fresh cilantro

Combine in a bowl. Ta da!

I squeezed some fresh lime juice on mine and gave it a few turns with the pepper grinder. You could also gild the lily and add chopped sweet onion, pickled jalapenos or jarred salsa.

*You can make this an all-pantry recipe by using canned corn, but I prefer the crispiness of frozen. It also has less sodium.

Serves: 4

Since Chinese Chicken Salad is an American culinary invention (The Chinese don’t eat salads like we do. They eat white rice too, and they aren’t nearly as fat. Has anyone done a study on this paradox?), I think it’s fair to lay a few ground rules for its preparation.

Rule One: It should not contain everything but the kitchen sink. Rule Two: it should be fresh, crispy and refreshing, anything but what we usually get from restaurant fare. And Rule Three: it shouldn’t be laden in oily, overly sweet dressing. After all, by its very nature it should be healthy.

This salad, an adaption from Cooks Illustrated, fits the bill exactly. There aren’t many ingredients (you can add the mandarin oranges, a la Wendy’s, if you wish), thus it retains it’s unique flavor. Resist the temptation to add too many extras. They only serve to muddle the overall taste and texture of what should be a delightful summer salad.

3 boneless skinless chicken breast halves
4 t. vegetable oil
1/3 cup rice vinegar (unseasoned is better here)*
3 T. hoisin sauce
1 1/2 T. low-sodium soy sauce
1 T. grated fresh ginger
2 carrots, peeled and grated
1/2 medium head napa cabbage, sliced thin crosswise
1 cup bean sprouts
1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
2 green onions, thinly sliced
2 T. minced fresh cilantro leaves
1 cup chow mein noodles**

Pat chicken breasts dry and season liberally with salt and pepper. Heat 1 t. oil in a nonstick skillet and add chicken. Cook until browned on one side. Turn over, add 1/2 cup water, cover and simmer another 5 minutes, until chicken is cooked through. Transfer to a plate and cover with plastic wrap. Poke a few holes in the plastic and refrigerate chicken while preparing the other ingredients. When chicken is cool, shred it into bite-sized pieces.

Combine the rice vinegar, the remaining 3 t. oil, hoisin sauce, soy sauce and ginger together in a bowl.

Toss together the chicken, shredded carrot, cabbage, sprouts, bell pepper, green onions and cilantro in a large salad bowl. Shake the dressing to combine and pour over the salad. I didn’t use all of the dressing but brought it to the table to add to individual servings.

Sprinkle with chow mein noodles and serve.

*Seasoned rice vinegar is the most widely available Asian vinegar and is sold in the Asian section of most supermarkets. It’s sweeter than unseasoned rice vinegar. If you can find it, get the unseasoned version for this vinaigrette. I found the seasoned vinegar to be a bit too sweet, although it may suit your tastes.

** Chow mein noodles can be found in the Asian section of most large supermarkets. La Choy is the most visible and popular brand.

Champ suggested the addition of a few peanuts, which we tried and found delightful. Don’t overdo, though. Again, you don’t want to be biting down on the proverbial kitchen sink.

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Best friend Michael and I are house-sitting in the foothills above Sacramento. Yesterday morning it rained, then it snowed, then the sun came out and finally, this hail storm, all within a span of about six hours. In Kansas we say that if you don’t like the weather, stick around for five minutes and it will change. Add California to that list.

I roasted a chicken the other night and served it with a Mediterranean vinaigrette I adapted from Bon Appetit. (Vinaigrettes are not just for salads.) This one has a higher ratio of lemon juice to olive oil, making it less rich and also more lemony tasting on the chicken. It’s a lovely introduction to spring. Here’s the recipe:

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 T. chopped fresh rosemary
1 t. crushed red pepper flakes (or less if you have wimpy taste buds)
1/2 t. kosher salt
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

Whisk all together and drizzle over roast chicken and vegetables such as asparagus, broccoli or potatoes. You can also place salad leaves on your plate, top with sliced chicken and then drizzle away. Yum.

2 cups fresh corn (about two ears, or use frozen thawed)
2 small tomatoes, diced
2 green onions, thinly sliced
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
1 garlic clove, minced
2 T. lime juice
2 t. extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 t. salt
fresh basil, cilantro or mint, chopped

Combine all ingredients in a serving bowl. You can refrigerate this up to two hours. The tomatoes will render lots of liquid but don’t worry about it. It just adds more flavor.

Makes 4 servings (3/4 cup)

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